Glow
by riftactivity
Summary: Something comes through the rift. The team has no clue what, so they investigate I know! what a worthless summery! Set after Jack's return and before reset.
1. Chapter 1

Jack was working in his office when he overheard the start of an argument.

"No this is not normal, it's definitely activity… look at that spike !"

"Tosh love, that's not a spike, that's a little blip, a slight 'upward movement', nothing to worry about."

"I've been studying these bloody readings for years now, Owen. If I say it's a spike, then it's a spike!"

"God Tosh, you're so anal sometimes! Ianto! Come and look at this, does it look like a spike to you?"

Ianto moved over reluctantly. The last thing he wanted to do was to get caught in an argument no one would win. He knew the drill; Tosh would go on and on and finally Owen would say something very hurtful and they'd all retreat to their desks, Owen smug as can be and Tosh sad and close to tears.

"Ianto look, that's a spike, isn't it?"

Tosh looked at him expectantly. He did see something, but hardly something you'd call a real Rift spike.  
Still, just to tick Owen off…

"It's definitely an 'upward movement' Tosh, maybe a spike. Anyways, you're the expert on Rift activity, so I'll take your word for it."

"Yeah yeah, taking her side. Well of course you would, wouldn't you. Just fetch me a coffee Ianto, do something useful around here."

Tosh grinned, Owen growled, and Jack watched them from the office door. Sometimes they were like little children and those moments were the ones he enjoyed most; when his crew bickered or had fun together. That's when it felt like he had a family, a home. He knew that even if they fought often and nagged at each other endlessly, just like a family, they'd go through hell to protect each other from danger and there was lots of that to be had when working for Torchwood.

Jack went down the stairs, ready to settle the issue with his casual charm.

"Show me that spike Tosh, I'm sure the boys recognize a -how did they call it?- 'upward movement' when they _have_ one but not the ones on your screen."

Owen threw Jack a dirty look. Always with the innuendos, that man really had a problem.

"Look at this Jack, this is a normal Rift spike it goes up and after a few seconds it starts dropping, but slowly."

"I had an ex like that" Gwen said just having entered the hub.

She was late, made a habit of it lately. Since her engagement with Rhys she seemed to have difficulty leaving him in the morning. Jack never complained about it for two very good reasons:

First of all she never complained about the late hours, the weekend work, the night shifts and the fact that sometimes she went home bruised, stabbed or shot. And further more, even if he'd been back for a while now, he knew that if he'd say anything, she'd go on and on about how ten minutes of tardiness couldn't be an issue if he could leave for eight months without informing any of them of his departure.

"Good morning Gwen. Your coffee, Sir."

Ianto gave everybody their favourite beverage and joined the group that stood around Tosh's desk.

"So, as I was saying, this is a normal Rift spike... and this is when nothing happens, the normal simple fluctuation model. This is what happened this morning. As you can see it's not comparable with any of the other spikes or fluctuations, it's a slow gradual rise, it doesn't peak so high and it takes forever to subside."

Jack looked at the picture before him. It did look different from anything they'd seen before, but it was definitely not nothing.

"Ok, Tosh, give me the location of that rift spike. I want a full calculation of the time span the rift was open. Cross reference it with all data, as far back as you can go, to see if anything similar has happened before. Ianto, you'll have to help her by going through the archives. Go through the readings from before the computer generation. I know, it'll take time, but we need this done ASAP. Owen, Gwen, when Tosh finds the location you'll go out to investigate, try to see if you can find any residual energy. If you do, track it down. I'm not saying something came through, but the Rift definitely acted up just then."

Everybody got into work mode. The excitement was palpable; it always was when things like this happened. The adrenaline rush was intoxicating. Tosh started her calculations, Gwen got her coat and the SUV keys. Ready and waiting to know their destination.

By the time Owen had gathered the right equipment, Tosh had an estimate location.

"It's just outside town, close to the old warehouses. I'll send you the exact coordinates while you're on the way there."

Owen and Gwen left the hub in a hurry. The first to reach the SUV could drive, so Jack hoped it was Owen. They needed to get there fast and with Gwen at the wheel it could get tricky.

"Tosh, I'll help Ianto go through the archives. If anything comes up we're on the coms.

"

Did he notice a little smile on her face just then? He really was going to help Ianto, what did she take him for?

Ianto was already going through the files. The first real Rift activity-sensor dated from 1912; it made beautiful lines on the brown paper. He loved the feel of paper, he was old fashioned that way. Paper had a certain quality PC screens just lacked. 1912... that meant a lot of time to go through, day and night readings spread over years and years. This was going to be boring, and long...

"Need a hand with that?"

"Oh, Jack, I didn't hear you coming. I was wondering when you gave the orders, if you were going to let us slave away, while you enjoyed your coffee."

Jack entered the archive and opened a cabinet. He didn't have the time to take out anything, Ianto slapped his hand and closed the drawer.

"You don't touch my archives Captain Harkness, you'll just mess up everything. I'll give you the readings and I'll put them back where they belong. You can start with these..."

Ianto handed Jack a file filled with readings.

"And don't mess up the order or I'll deal with you personally."

Jack wouldn't mind Ianto dealing with him personally, he wanted nothing more really. Since he'd been back they'd gone on a date, they'd kissed a few times, but Ianto seemed very reluctant to pick up where they'd left off.

So yeah, he had left them without warning, but he had come back, for them, especially for Ianto.  
He knew he wouldn't be invited back in his bed the first night, but how long was Ianto going to keep him at bay. It's not as if he hadn't tried every trick in the book. He must have lost his touch while he was gone.

"So Ianto, would you mind if I came round this evening. We could watch a movie at your place. I'll cook if you'll allow me anywhere near the kitchen."

Ianto stood there, mouth open as if he'd just seen a ghost. Jack had been in his apartment before. After Lisa died he'd taken care of Ianto but after that he had never come near his place again. Everything just happened at the Hub or in Jack's sleeping quarters.

"…Huh, …you … at my place, for a movie? And you want me to believe that?"

"Ianto I can behave you know, haven't I shown that the last few weeks? I really can. We went on a date and I didn't even ask to enter your flat, remember? I told you, we'll do this right this time round, take our time. But taking our time if we don't spend some together is rather pointless, don't you think?"

"… And you'll cook? Really? And you'll behave?"

"I promise Ianto, a nice meal, a movie and no sex unless you beg."

Damn that sly grin of his. Ianto burst out laughing, this had been the toughest game to play. The very first thought that had crossed his mind after Jack's return hadn't been very pure. Even if he had played hard to get he was sure that if Jack came round to cook, by the end of the evening, he'd be on hands and knees begging pretty please.

"We'll see, first you help me with these sheets, then we see what came through that Rift and if you're very lucky, I'll let you near my kitchen… Just don't mess up my cupboards."

Jack could hear Tosh's voice on the coms.

"Jack, Ianto, I don't want to interrupt anything, but this is urgent."

A/N next chapter : team finds out what came through. if you want the rest just R&R. :-)


	2. Chapter 2

Jack and Ianto shot through the corridor and were in the hub in no time.

"Just got reports from Crimin. There is a spectacular increase in deaths all over Cardiff. Cause unknown.  
Looks like they just dropped dead, no warning, nothing. I've just gone through the CCTV for one of the victims. I can't see anything, look, one moment he's standing there -the next-he just drops dead. Jack, what's going on?"

"How many are there Tosh?"

"For now, sixty-five cases in the last two hours. It started shortly after I noticed the Rift activity."

Jack looked worried, "Where are Owen and Gwen?"

"They've just arrived at the scene."

Gwen and Owen had walked around the place Tosh had pinpointed as the Rift activity spot.

"Gwen? It's Tosh, have you found anything?"

There was nothing to be seen, but there was enough residual energy to light up the Empire State building.

"Tosh, I don't know what came through, but it's massive. I'm sending you the readings from the energy meter."

"Owen, can you see anything? Footprints, traces of anything that could give us an idea of what this thing is?"

"No Jack, nothing, there is no sign of anything, nothing has stirred the grounds"

The readings from Gwen and Owen came through at the hub.

"Ok we have all the readings we need, we'll analyze them here. You and Owen go to the hospital. Owen, there have been sixty-five deaths by unknown causes during the last two hours. I need your scientific opinion. I'll inform the police that Torchwood is taking over. Take whatever you need to analyze and come back ASAP."

"Great, thank you Jack, love working under pressure."

This didn't look good, not only did something come through the Rift, it seemed to have a hunger for human life.

So, something massive came through. Even if it flew out of the Rift, something massive would have massive wings, and would have somehow moved the earth beneath. Also, nothing had disturbed the airspace.

"Tosh can you make something out of Gwen's figures."

"She's right Jack, this is massive, It's something big but it has no density, like a ghost. The good news is that thanks to the readings I can track it down and it will be visible on our screens."

Ianto came over to look at the reading. He'd seen something like this before. Not quite the same but still.  
He ran to his computer and shifted through his old records.

"Jack, Tosh, look, the figures are way less elevated than this one, but they has the same characteristics.  
This file is from the gases that took over Carys."

"So what are you saying? The same gas came through? Jack, that would be good because we know how to kill it."

"No Tosh, this is not the same; the alien gas that took over Carys needed a host to survive and to get the energy they lived off. This one is taking lives and apparently it can survive without a host. We have to stop it before it kills the whole of Cardiff."

"Jack, I just checked the police database again and the death count keeps going up."

There was no news of Owen yet but Jack thought he knew what this was about. A massive energy cluster comes through the Rift and starts feeding on life energy. This was going to be tricky, getting near it was no option. He couldn't risk the team to be zapped. He could go as bait, of course he could, like with Abbaddon. Forfeit his own life to save the world -again- as if it was anything enjoyable. No one knew how much pain was involved with the coming back part. But whatever had to be done. They had to find a way to isolate the energy but even if they found a way to trap it, what the hell where they suppose to do with it?

First of all he needed Tosh, to come up with a plan. Owen had to give him an idea of how this thing killed, just to be prepared and to assess the danger he was putting the team in. All this needed to be done fast… really fast.

"Tosh, find me a way to stop that thing."

Jack activated his coms device.

"Owen, are you at the hospital yet?"

"Yep, and it's a mess. Strange thing Jack. They are dead but there are no signs of lesions. Nothing, it looks like they just dropped dead. No toxins nor physical anomaly, nothing that links the victims. It's random and it's fast."

Gwen's voice came through.

"Jack, they all look so peaceful, as if they didn't have time to be scared. What is doing this?"

Jack didn't know, but Tosh had a pretty good idea.

"Gwen, as far as I can see we're dealing with a massive amount of energy. Just energy, not corporeal, like electric current, I've never seen anything like it. Owen, are there traces of electrocution?"

"Nope, can't see anything resembling electrocution. Their bodies are intact. There's nothing."

"Owen, Gwen come back to the hub now. Nothing more you can do out there. Ianto, body count please?"

"One hundred and thirty-four and rising sir."

Damn, this would be a massive cover-up operation if and when they got rid of the thing.

Fifteen minutes later Owen and Gwen entered the hub. They joined Tosh, Ianto and Jack in the boardroom.

"So guys, what have you come up with?"

Showing graphs on the screen, Tosh started to explain what she thought might be going on.  
"These are the readings you sent me. I've compared them with the readings from the Rift activity. It's as big as a house. According to what I can see it forced it's way through the Rift, It shouldn't have been able to come through, that's why the spike was much lower and stretched out. It breached a gap in the crack and just slipped through slowly. If I'm right and it is energy then we can isolate it without to much problem, except that to do so we'll have to drain all the energy of Cardiff… and It won't go unnoticed if we have to isolate it in the city. We'll have to find a way to get it between four transistors that emits an opposite type of energy. That won't be a problem, I can create that by reversing the energy readings we've got. Opposite energy tend to attract. So the energy will be contained between our energy walls, stuck to it actually, and won't be able to slip through. That'll give us time to find a way to get rid of it."

Tosh stopped talking and then there was silence. Everybody seemed to be thinking about the implication, but only Owen had the natural capacity of making a great idea sound like a nutter's rambling.

"OK Tosh, correct me if I'm wrong here, but you suggest encapsulating an energy field as big as a house in the middle of Cardiff, using all the energy available in this glorious town and then crossing our fingers hoping that somehow we'll find a way to 'get rid of it.' And what do you suggest we do afterwards? Retcon the entire city?"

"Well technically, that wouldn't be a problem, would it? Some retcon in the water supply and we'll have a town full of amnesiacs."

"Yeah, thank you Ianto for your wacko moment. Really, sometimes I wonder."

Jack looked lost for a while. Tosh's idea was as usual brilliant. But Owen had a point. Everybody would notice, Torchwood would be exposed like never before.

"Ok guys, we have no choice, we'll have to take this one step at a time. First make sure we keep the casualties to a strict minimum by acting fast… very fast. Afterwards we'll find a way to deal with the consequences. Tosh if I'm not wrong we had energy converters in the basement right, the ones that came through last year? Will they do?"

"I think so. It's alien so I don't know what capacity it has but it's the only device strong enough to get the job done. We'll need to divert all available energy to the devices so we'll have to link them to a big power source."

"Ianto could you get the town's blueprints. We'll need them once we're close to the thing… oh and find a name for it please… Ok guys stack up the equipment. We have some energy to burn."

Everybody snapped into action. Owen and Tosh were getting the devices out of the basement. Gwen was calculating the energy cluster's position and Ianto got the blueprints they needed. Jack was looking at the data one last time. Where do you come from my friend and what is it you want, he wondered.

He'd travelled throughout the galaxy, he knew that most species had their reason to act. He just needed to know what the thing wanted. Once he knew that he'd find a way to stop it.


	3. Chapter 3

They arrived at the spot where they hoped to catch cluster buster. Cluster buster was now the official name of the thing. Owen had rolled his eyes when hearing it, but then again, he rolled his eyes at everything Ianto said; Jack had never figured out what it was between those two.

They got out of the car and got straight to work. Placing the devices at a (hopefully) large enough distance. Ianto was in the sewers trying to find the power course shown on the blueprints. He just had to connect the cables and hook everything to the devices. Tosh was going to redirect the Cardiff energy supply to this exact spot and with a bit or luck all this will result in the activation of the devices and a dome like energy field will encapsulate the cluster buster. Gwen had contacted the police to see how they were going to secure the area. The evacuation was still ongoing but most of the population had already left. It wasn't a densely inhabited area. That's why they chose this point to hook up the devices. The less prying eyes, the less problems later on. Now the only thing they hoped for was that the cluster wouldn't change his of her mind and change the trajectory. Right now things looked good. It was coming nearer at a regular pace leaving them enough time to put all thing in place. Devices were hooked up, power redirection was ready to be activated, citizens were mostly gone and the team had put themselves at a safe distance. The only thing Jack feared was that once the buster didn't feel life energy in proximity it might change it's course, So Jack would have to lure him closer. Nobody had more life energy than Jack. He'd done this before, with Abbaddon, and survived. He could do it again.

Everybody held their breath, they watched the cluster's progress on screen and saw it edging close to the devices, where jack had positioned himself inside the circle but just close enough to the border to be able to run out once the creature had entered the trap. He couldn't see anything but he heard Tosh over the coms.

"Get ready Jack. I can see it approaching. I think It sensed you, it's accelerated slightly."

"Jack, estimated time of arrival twenty seconds."

"Thanks Gwen, I can't see anything so when it's in the right position would you be so kind as to yell please. I don't want to be trapped with that thing if I can avoid it."

"Ten seconds… eight… six… five… four… it's almost inside the circle Jack… two… one, RUN!!"

He heard all four voices shouting to get the hell out, one sounded more anxious than the rest.

Ianto took hold of Gwen's arm and squeezed just that little bit too hard.

Tosh monitored the screen with an unfailing concentration and the moment she got view of the creature within the circle of devices she activated the power surge but not before checking if Jack was safe and sound.

Jack turned around just in time to see a bright white light spring to life all around the buster. It worked, he saw sparks all over the place. The creature seemed to become denser, trying to get as far away from the walls. It couldn't, the field was to strong. The cluster got stretched out to all sides of the dome and where it touched the walls it emitted a blue radiant light.

"Hah ! Busted buster!"

"Always had a way with words sir."

Ianto and the rest of the team stood next close to him. Looking at the thing inside the ring of light. He looked at Ianto and couldn't stop touching his hand just for a second. If it would have been night all the lights would have gone out in the city, all electricity was being used to keep up the field. It won't take long before everybody left his job to find the source of the problem. Still, it was a wonderful sight, a big blue dome glowing and shining bright, probably visible from all over town. This was messy to say the least.

"So, what do we do now?"

"Well if we can't sort this by tonight, we'll set up our tents."

"We'll do what?! Oh no Jack , the last time we did that we ended up almost being eaten! You must be kidding!"

"We can't go back to the hub or leave all this unattended and we don't squat in other people's home, so let's try to solve this ASAP, ok, if we do we'll be home by tonight. But you know Owen, a night in the tent might just turn you into a man."

No matter how much Owen respected Jack sometimes he felt like killing him all over again. Gwen had gotten closer to the energy barrier, as if she tried to feel what was inside. She was very empathic but this, jack thought, was out of her league. He went over and stood next to her.

"Jack, is it sentient? Can we communicate with it?"

"I haven't got a clue. We have the translator with us but as long as it doesn't emit a sound we're not close to understanding what it says… or doesn't say."

"What's the plan then? We just stick around until mister buster here sings us a song?"

"You know what Owen, you're right Why don't you do something useful. It's almost noon so while we 'stick around' you can get us some food."

"Gwen I'd like for you to go around town. Call the cops, see if they can still cope with the curious. Try to see how far they are with the casualties. I'd like you to pick up the and get them in the morgue. Maybe we can still save them if this creature releases their energy."

"Right, Jack, it's not that easy," Apparently Owen hadn't left for food yet.

"This is not like the glove, we won't be able to resuscitate them, even if buster releases the energy, there is no way to jump start their system. By the time we've dealt with this creature, they will have been dead too long."

Ianto looked panicked.

"There's not enough room in the vaults for more than one hundred and thirty-four dead bodies Jack, no matter how I'll stack them. It's just too much."

"Everybody calm down, we have a job to do. Tosh is trying to communicate with that buster there. Once we've done that, we can see if it can do something else than kill things. Owen, go, we're hungry! Ianto, help Gwen with the bodies. It'll take some time to get them all to the hub, find a way to store them. If family or friends are in proximity please be discrete, try to look like coroners. I don't know just how, but be imaginative OK? This is an unusual situation we all need to use our resources at best."

When everybody had left to do what they were supposed to do Jack went over to Tosh. She seemed so concentrated it looked funny. Tosh was at her best behind her computer and applications, confident, a genius. It was a pity that she was shy and closed off once she left the security of her screens. Still, she had saved them many times before and he was sure she'd be able to do the same now. He wanted it all over as soon as possible because the longer it took the more problems this was going to cause later on.

"Anything Tosh?"

"No, it's not speaking, it's not emitting any waves that can be translated into language. But I did find something."

Jack laughed, he knew Tosh well, and when she said she'd found something, most of the time it was something big. Especially when she had that little crooked smile.

"Look here Jack, this is buster, look at these specks of light that shine within it. If I'm not wrong, those specks don't belong to the buster, they belong to our world, they are what's left of our dead. If we can get it to free them, then maybe we can save them after all."

"According to Owen no chance of that happening. Any chance of it dying soon?"

"I don't think it will Jack, it's not losing energy, but it's not growing stronger either, it's constant."

"Any way of killing it then?"

"Except for lighting a fuse and blowing Wales of the map, not really. Destroy this amount of energy and everything goes boom!"

"OK, emit every possible language you know. Code, French, that queer little one we got from the Juskedi's, whatever we've got. It should react to something. I'm calling a friend at U.N.I.T. See what they've got and if they can find anything in their database concerning major energy blob here."

Twenty minutes later still no reaction from buster but they had pizza. Not the type of pizza they liked because the only one who knew exactly what everyone liked was Ianto. Still it was food and it killed time.

* * *

Ianto and Gwen had been busy for five hours. Driving to and from the morgue to the Hub. One hundred and sixty-nine corpses was a lot of work and Ianto was right. There wasn't enough space. What the hell where they suppose to do with all these corpses afterwards? If Owen was right they were going to stay dead, and Ianto knew just who was going to be responsible for the disposal of all these bodies.

"Ianto, I've just stacked the last two in Jack's office. Sorry, I don't know where to put them anymore. The morgue is full, there are a few in the archives and the rest..." Gwen couldn't speak anymore, she had tried to stay calm and not look at all the faces, but it all came crashing down.

The last two corpses had been of children. A little girl with pigtails and a little ginger boy, he couldn't have been older than five.

"All this death Ianto."

Big sobs escaped her, she wasn't like the rest, she felt things, her heart broke with every death. No matter how hard she tried to disengage herself from all the destruction Torchwood was about, she couldn't be as tough as the others. Ianto closed the distance between them and took her in his arms. After a while he disengaged himself.

"Gwen, I understand, believe me… we see more deaths in a month than a coroner sees in a lifetime but we're needed. We're the only one between death and more death. If we don't do our job today, or any day for that matter, this world, these people, would have been dead a long time ago. Be strong Love, not for those in the morgue, but for those who are still alive. We have to keep the rest alive!"

"I just don't get it Ianto, how do you deal with all this?"

"This Gwen," He pointed at all the dead and the Hub, "This is all I have left. Torchwood took everything from me, and now Torchwood is all I have left to care about. This is my duty, to protect other people so that they won't have to deal with this. It's your duty too. So, we do this, it's part of the job, part of our duty. Jack needs us to be strong, so we will be."

Gwen hugged him, she took a deep breath as if filling herself with his strength, then exhaled very slowly.

She let go, looked him in the eyes.

"I can see why he loves you Ianto."

Ianto offered his arm which she took with a big sad smile. They made their way to the door, careful not to step on the bodies. There was still work to be done.


	4. Chapter 4

It was six PM by the time Gwen and Ianto reached the others. Others who seemed to have made themselves comfortable by dragging out couches from the evacuated houses. They were eating snacks and looking at the thing as if they were watching a movie. Tosh had her laptop on her knees and seemed deflated. It didn't look good at all.

"Hey guys, any progress?"

"Gwen, Ianto, take a seat. There's a great show on tonight."

Owen was slouched on a sofa. He didn't seem to be doing much to help Jack or Tosh who were still browsing through the language translator files.

"So, how are things at the Hub? Did you find room to store everybody?"

"Well Jack, it's a mess, really a mess, there are bodies everywhere, even in your office."

Gwen threw Jack a sideway glance. They both knew how Ianto hated mess.

"And the police, are they able to contain the citizens? We haven't seen anyone yet, but how long will that last?"

"I talked to Andy and the senior officers. All streets have been barred. There's a mile radius that has been sealed off. They are doing a hell of a job. Of course everybody sees the energy dome, it's beautiful, but people are asking questions. There is also a centre for people who've lost relatives. I have no idea how we are going to explain all these casualties. We'll have to come up with one hell of a stunt."

Jack didn't know what to tell them, that they had spent five hours trying to communicate with that thing, a thing they couldn't kill for fear of blowing up Wales. Tosh had calculated that they had four hours left before the alien devices used to create the energy field would start failing; after that the thing would be on the loose again. So basically they were stuck. The only thing they could do was reason with it, but he had no idea if it even had the means to communicate. Jack stood up. Approached the force field and looked at the cluster buster.

He yelled from the top of his lungs "WHO ARE YOU?"

The entire team could hear the desperation in his question. They saw how Jack cursed and turned around to join them. As he reached the others Tosh saw something happening in the force field, this time not only on screen. Energy seemed to be compressing inside the field creating the outline of a person.

"Jack! Look."

As he turned around he saw the form in the dome.

Tosh tried to make sense of the readings.

"Jack, the energy ... it's forming an image."

Jack couldn't believe this, they had spent five hours sending alien languages to the cluster and all it needed was a 'who are you'?

The form came as closer, it looked like a young woman. The outlines were blurred and it wasn't dense enough to be solid but it was definitely a human form. The entire team gathered before the force field. Jack repeated his question.

"Who are you?"

"_We are all and everything, we are past and future, we are now and forever."_

Owen couldn't help snorting. "Great, alien cryptic talk, this is going to be fun. Any idea what it's talking about. And how come it speaks English?"

"I think it's using the consciousness of our dead to communicate, it could explain the time it took to be able to. The language had to be assimilated before they could use it. Like downloading a dictionary."

Tosh was fascinated. This was big, if they knew how this worked they could assimilate any language of any species they met. It would mean less death, less killing, a better understanding.

"Where do you come from?" Gwen always wanted to know the what where and whens, while Jack just wanted it gone.

"_We come from far. Our world is dying, we have been separated by something from outside our world. We cannot live if we're not one. We need compatible energy to recreate ourselves and regrow our world. You are similar, your vessels are not useful but your energy can save our lives."_

The way the thing spoke was not in an hostile way, more in a matter of fact, we-don't -mean-you-harm-but-this-is what-we-need-to-survive-way. Maybe this was going to end well after all.

"I don't know why the things that happened to you happened, but what you are doing is killing our people. You are taking away from us what has been taken away from you."

"_You are not one, you are separate, you are not connected_, _come with us, let us take you all, we will be one forever, one entity that never fails to live. Your times are short, you are all alone, you are all so sad, so alone. You all lose time and time again, most of all, you." _It was talking to Jack _"So old, lost, so alone."_

Jack's face turned to stone, he always closed down when he was confronted with his sad reality. It was all too true, he was old, older than anyone, he had lost so many people he cared about so often. Time and time again he had felt lost. He looked around him, met the glances of his team, Tosh, Owen, dear Gwen and Ianto, beautiful Ianto.

"You are right about many things my friend. People here are not connected, not in the way you are, many are sad, disappointed, broken even, and yes, our lifespan is short and there is nothing to look forward to after this life. But somehow, in our scatteredness we are connected. There are moments of joy and laughter, times where consolation can be found in the most unexpected places. We are tied by all this, the good and the bad. We are not so different from you. There where you are one we are many but we will do anything to survive. We try to call ourself peaceful, but we are willing to make sacrifices to ensure our survival. You see, we can destroy you if we want, we can make sure the last of you is dead and gone, that would cost us many of our people but we ARE many, we will survive. This is in some way a threat, but also a way out. Leave this planet now and we won't harm you. I can feel that you didn't mean harm, but harm has been done and it stops now."

Ianto loved when Jack was bluffing, made him think of all the times they had played games and he'd lost just because Jack had the perfect poker face. This was a big gamble, they all knew the only way to kill the thing was to blow up the city and Ianto knew Jack would never do that. Or would he…?

"_We are not hostile, we didn't know, we thought you were just energy. We will leave your world but we can't as long as we are in your field. We need space to breach the realities."_

Tosh gasped, "Jack we have no idea if we can trust it, we don't know if it will go or attack us. Jack, if we pull down the field, I don't know if I'll be able to get it up fast enough to stop an attack.."

"Ok, any of you got a better idea? If so please feel free."

Gwen and Owen looked away, Tosh stayed mute and Ianto looked Jack in the eyes, he couldn't have made it any clearer that he would stand by Jack, no matter what the consequences were.

Jack took a deep breath. "Tosh, lower the shield."


	5. Chapter 5

All things considered, it had gone well. The shields had been lowered and the creature had left, breaching a hole in time and space. They had seen it leave earth on the screen, the energy slowly disappearing in what seemed like a big red slot. Before leaving it had said that it could not return the already snatched energy, but that all the people they took with them would be part of them and be in the light forever.

All well that ends well if you had Torchwood standards, none of the team had gotten beaten up, smashed, kidnapped or killed Yep, a good day's work. For normal human standards of course, this was a day out of hell. One hundred and thirty-five death in one day. People being evacuated, big light bulb in central Cardiff. Everyone was paranoid and terrified.

PC Andy had called Gwen to see what she was going to do about it and she had answered the same as she always did with Andy. "Don't worry, everything is going to be ok, we'll take care of it."

They all worried though, the entire team was now back at the hub. Owen had had a field day finding ways to deal with the bodies.

"We could shoot them in the heart and blame it on a poor homeless guy turned sharpshooter."

"We could chop them up, organize a city fair and have a big barbecue." A comment that had earned him hateful looks from everybody, nobody had forgotten their encounter with cannibals.

Finally they had decided that no explanation would be adequate and they returned the bodies to the morgues, retconning the morgue people so they'd forget all about torchwood requisitioning the corpses. Ianto had written a press communiqué owning the energy dome to a problem with Cardiff's electricity network, also explaining the loss of electricity throughout Cardiff that day. There would be a lot of speculations, investigations and questions but nobody would think of blaming an alien life form for all the deaths. Human's had a great capacity of denial and self-deceit, the clever ones would be retconned as need be.

It was the end of another busy day, by the time all corpses were returned and all paperwork was done, it was past two AM. Gwen had gone home already, wanting to be with Rhys. Tosh and Owen had left not long afterwards, Tosh teasing Owen about his lack of insight he had that same morning, calling the spike 'just an upward movement'. Owen took it well and put his arm around Tosh's waist, a gesture Jack knew meant nothing to Owen, but all sorts of things to Tosh.

Ianto was ready to leave, he looked tired but good, as always. He turned to look at Jack.

"I'm off Jack, been a long day."

"Do you mind if I walk you home? I'm not really tired, as I don't need sleep, and I could do with a walk."

Ianto grinned, he knew that even if he said no at first, Jack would convince him eventually.

It was a quite walk, none said much, well they said nothing at all, Jack held Ianto's hand and when they got to his apartment Jack just followed Ianto inside. Jack hadn't asked and Ianto hadn't stopped him. Ianto flung himself in the couch while Jack stood at the door, unable to make up his mind to stay or leave. He watched Ianto, laying on the couch eyes closed and felt so at ease.

"Can I stay? I promised to cook for you, remember?"

Ianto smiled, his eyes still closed, too tired to open them right now.

"it's almost three AM, Jack. Hardly cooking time."

Ianto made Jack nervous, not many people could do that. He really wanted them to be together again, but he had never had to try really hard with anybody before. He had always been in control. Now, sometimes he thought Ianto made him soft… well when he didn't make him hard that was.

"I was thinking more in the line of breakfast." He monitored Ianto's reaction.

First his eyes opening fast, his face, the face of a shocked man, then slowly relaxing, followed by a mocking look and a big glorious smile.

"You are incorrigible. Do you really think anything is going to happen Jack? Look at me. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't get on my feet, ever again. I don't even have the energy to take off my clothes, let alone take off yours."

Jack stood up, took Ianto in his arms and carried him in the bedroom. He started to take of Ianto's shoes, his tie, unbuttoning his shirt. All the while Ianto laid back hardly able to move.

"Jack, I really don't…"

"Shush.. please don't argue."

Jack finished undressing Ianto he took his own clothes of and slipped under the covers. Ianto was almost sleeping, fighting to keep his eyes open.

A sleepy voice said "You won't get lucky tonight Captain Harkness." but even so, as always, Ianto laid his head on Jack's shoulder, his arm loosely around his waist, falling asleep slowly, his breathing light.

"I consider myself very lucky, Mr Jones" he said, kissing the boy's soft hair.

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That's it the story is completed. Those who stuck around, thanks. Reviews are love...


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